Movie	Extras
Audio	Video

Region 3.  Celestial release.

Movie
After something really bad happens, the lead and his friend walk gravely towards the bad guy.  Someone in the background says ‘Looks like a duel is about to ensue’.  I don’t know why but I like that line.  The movie’s plot concerns a few Shaolin masters ordered to go to the city to help in a rebellion coming later, but get sidetracked once they get there because of some Wudang masters.  It sounds vague but the movie is great.

Like ‘The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter’ (here), the plot drives the action.  There’s action only when there has to be… well, except maybe for the duel at the temple.  It’s an intriguing plot as well, filled with, um, intrigue.  It’s suspenseful and you never know if the heroes will be caught in a trap or if they’re good enough to defeat their foes.  The plot is very exciting and the background is full fleshed out.  That almost never happens in a martial arts movie.  The rivalry between Shaolin and Wudang is explained in detail.  Now, this rivalry may not be accurate in the history of the China, but it’s explained very concisely in the movie, and you hear both sides of the story.  No school is entirely bad, although the Qing court’s leaning towards Wudang will probably give you and idea of who to root for.

Because of that, the relationships of the characters and their place in the movie world are very clear, and you have time to care for them.  The plot isn’t forced, it evolves naturally.  The things that happen never seem contrived or derivative.  Screenwriters (or so they’re credited) Chang Cheh and I Kuang made every good decision you can make.  The characters are different, interesting and memorable.  You want to know these characters.  You want to know more about them, most importantly to get an attachment to them, you want to see them even when they’re not fighting.  I once said the difference between ‘Hand of Death’ and ‘Last Hurrah for Chivalry’ (both John Woo movies, hence the comparison) is that the drama in the latter sucks you into that movie, so it’s much more rewarding overall.  That’s the case here.  The drama sucks you in and the fights create the tension and excitement.

The right decisions were also made in regards to the fights.  The movie is a Venom movie, but this time Philip Kwok decided to stay behind the camera.  He and stars Lu Feng and Chiang Sheng share the action choreographer credit and they did an amazing job.  There are plenty of fights to keep you going.  They are, however, part of the plot, as I’ve mentioned.  The duel fight in the temple, possibly the only superfluous fight in the entire movie, is stunning nonetheless.  The three guys designed everything nicely, and thankfully the actors handled everything well.

Lo Meng shows off why he was Lo Meng.  Korean kicker Sun Chien gets in on the action, but not enough for my tastes.  He looks better in here than he does in ‘The Five Venoms’, though, so that’s a good point.  Chiang Sheng is the only one that seems out of place for some reason.  It’s like he’s a bit sloppier than the others.  Regardless, he can jump around like nobody else can.  That temple duel shows you that quite easily.  Fans of ‘Fist of Legend’ and ‘Mr. Vampire’ will definitely recognize Chin Siu-Ho in one of his first screen roles.  He, like everybody else, gets to fight, and he does a good job.  He’s not the focus of this movie, so the others do most of the sparring, but he gets in a few punches before the movie ends.

This movie is important for me because it’s the first Chang Cheh (‘The Flag of Iron’, ‘The Rebel Intruders’) movie I ever saw.  I didn’t like it and now that I see it again I wonder why.  It’s incredible.  I guess the movie being cropped and dubbed doesn’t really help it.  This is an amazing piece of work by Chang Cheh.  Everybody’s story comes full circle, the intrigue is very exciting and fights are well done.  The movie is everything you can ask for in a martial arts movie.

Special Features
Trailers
‘Two Champions of Shaolin’, ‘Shaolin Temple’, ‘The 36th Chamber of Shaolin’ (here), ‘Disciples of the 36th Chamber’ and ‘Shaolin Hand Lock’ (here) get action-packed, pretty good, minute-long trailers.  You know, I’m really glad I’m not a Shaolin Monk.  I’m far too lazy to go through all that training.

Movie Information
As with every single other Celestial Shaw release, you have four sections here.  The first is a Photo Gallery, next is the Original Poster, after that you can see some fake Production Notes and last is a Biography & Selected Filmography section.  The photo gallery is divided into two subgalleries, Behind the Scenes, which have captions telling you what you’re seeing, and Movie Stills, whis is made up of nice moments from the movie.  The poster is nice but nothing really new.  The ‘fake’ notes are not really notes about the movie, they’re just what’s printed on the back of the DVD box.  It should be noted that the English and Chinese texts differ.  I don’t know what the differences are but I know enough Chinese to know that it’s not the same as the English text.  The last section talks about actors Lo Meng, Wang Li, Candy Wen Hsueh-erh, Chiang Sheng, Sun Chien and director Chang Cheh.  Some of these are really short.  Lo Meng’s biography is only a page long.

Audio
The one track – a Mandarin Dolby 5.1 track – handles everything nicely.  Everything being in the centre speaker, basically.  The voices and the score and the effects come out of that one speaker perfectly clearly.  There’s no distotion or interference.  The rear speakers are used for the occasional bird chirp but that’s about it.  I can’t say much more.  You get a mono track remixed (well) in 5.1.  It’s not incredibly dynamic but that’s not the point, is it?

Video
2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen.  You know what, I’m tired or writing basically the same thing for every movie.  I’ll use what I wrote for ‘The Five Venoms’.  It’s accurate: ‘Like the others, a lot of work has been put into the movie, but it’s obviously still not perfect.  There’s very, very slight flickering here and there.  In the beginning, it’s noticeable in the wall behind the characters.  [Okay maybe not completely accurate, but there still is slight flickering, which is noticeable in the walls in the background at times.]  Other than that, there’s not much to complain about.  The colours are bright, and the contrast if very nice.  The detail is pretty nice, considering the age.  The black level is pretty strong.  If you’re satisfied with Celestial’s other work, this one won’t disappoint either.’

26/4/2005